Process of preserving wood.



Patented Feb. 25,. I902.

l. B. SPRAGUE.

- PROCESS OF PRESERVjNG WOOD.

(Application filed July 23, 1900.)

(No Model.)

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UNITE TATES ATENT Price.

IRA BRYANT SPRAGUE, OF EVERETT, VVASIIINGTON.

PROCESS OF PRESERVING WOOD.

SPECIFICATION forming part Of Letters Patent No. 694,212, dated February 25, 1902.

Application filed July 23 1900- Serial No. 24,523- (No specimens.)

To all whom it may concern.-

Be it known that I, IRA BRYANT SPRAGUE, a citizen of the United States, and a resident of Everett, in the county of Snohomish and State of Washington, have invented new and useful Improvements in Preserving Timbers, of which the following is a full, clear, and exact description.

My invention relates to the art of preserving wood, and has for its object to render wood proof against the attacks of teredoes, the invention being particularly applicable to the preserving 0t piles or other timber exposed to the attacks of teredoes.

Reference is to be had to the accompanying drawings, forming a part of this specification, in which similar characters of reference indi cate corresponding parts in both figures.

Figure 1 is an elevation of a pile treated according to my invention, with a part in section; and Fig. 2 is a cross-section thereof.

In carrying out my invention I take ordinary iron nails and dip or lay them in salt water, so as to make them rusty. These nails are then driven into the pile about two inches apart all around the pile. Iron borings or filings are then pressed into the wood between the nail-heads by means of a roller or of any other suitable tool. The pile thus coated is then treated with a salt solution containing rust, preferably by immersing the pile in such solution, and thus the pile is provided with a hard gritty coating which extends one to one and one-half inches into the wood. This coating preserves wood and also protects it against the destructive action of teredoes. In salt water the piles will be particularly permanent, as the rusting action will be continued energetically.

In the drawings, A is the core of the pilethat is, that part which is not reached by the rust.

A is the portion of the pile impregnated or penetrated by the rust.

B represents the nails, 0 the layer of iron borings or filings, and D the outer coating of rust.

It will be obvious that I may use iron in any suitable form instead of nails.

Having thus described my invention, I claim as new and desire to secure by Letters Patent- 1. The process of preserving wood, which consists indriving pieces of iron into it, then pressing comminuted iron into the wood between the outer ends of said pieces, and finally treating the wood with an oxidizing liquid.

2. The process of preserving wood, which consists in driving into it pieces of rusty iron, then pressing comminuted iron into the surface of the wood between the outer ends of said pieces of iron, and finally treating the wood with a salt solution containing rust.

In testimony whereof I have signed my name to this specification in the presence of two subscribing witnesses. v I

IRA BRYANT SPRAGUE.

Witnesses:

F. H. BRowNELL, LEVERICH DURYEE. 

